The Kenai City Council voted to purchase a new grader for the streets department through the utilization of the State of Alaska Procurement Contract and issued a purchase order. The city says that purchasing the equipment saves time, staff resources, results in a competitive purchase price and allows the Streets Department to provide reliable service for clearing the roadways in the winter months and grading of gravel roadways during the summer.
Kenai Finance Director Terry Eubank:
“In the FY21 budget, this actual budget we’re still under right now, we proposed to lease two graders, surplus two graders and lease two graders for five months out of the year as opposed to buying new. At the time we adopted the budget, we thought we had relatively solid quotes or conception with some of the companies out there, but when we went to lease them, the price went up significantly. We utilized the two graters that we’re going to surplus again this last winter. The plan now is to surplus those two and replace with just one, but if you also remember, we had a vacancy in one of our street operator positions that we’ve chosen not to fill at this time. So we’ll actually be down a man as well. Can I definitely tell you this isn’t going to impact snow removal efforts? Probably not, but we don’t believe that those impacts will be so substantial that one, most people will notice or that it’s not something we can deal with.”
The purchase order with NC Machinery is in the amount of up to $340,000 for a new CAT 160 motor grader with accessories. The funds would be provided by the equipment replacement fund. The pieces of equipment that will be replaced are both over 20 years old.
Resolution 2021-36 unanimously passed the Kenai City Council.